Both Golding and Dickens have concerns for the moral welfare of their societies. What concerns do they have? How are they relevant to the time in which they are writing and how are these ideas communicated through character and setting?

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Introduction

Both Golding and Dickens have concerns for the moral welfare of their societies. What concerns do they have? How are they relevant to the time in which they are writing and how are these ideas communicated through character and setting? Both Golding and Dickens convey their concerns for the moral welfare of their societies through Lord of the Flies and Great Expectation. In this essay I will show their concerns for the moral welfare of their societies and how they communicate their concerns through character and setting. William Golding's one of many concerns about the moral welfare of his society is that he believes that man would destroy the earth with atomic warfare and nuclear weapons. Golding uses the fact that the boys were brought to the island through atomic warfare in the air to display his feeling about Atomic Warfare in his society. It is the Atomic Warfare that brought the boys to the island, and it is that, therefore what led the boys to corruptness and all of the killing. This further brings to light Golding's concern that Man would destroy the earth and each other with Atomic Warfare and Nuclear Weapons. I believe that Golding decided to end the novel with the officer coming to the rescue rather than all of the boys leading a horrible death because he wanted to show that the experience on the island can be compared to the real world. In an interview with Golding he says: - "The whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end where the adult life appears, dignified and capable, but in reality enmeshed in the same evil as the symbolic life of the children on the island. The officer, having interrupted a manhunt, prepares to take the children off the island in a cruiser, which will presently be hunting its enemy in the same implacable way. ...read more.

Middle

This is parallel with the Garden of Eden. Golding is trying to say that the world could be a paradise but the nature of man destroys the world. The setting also provides a sense of fear, which complements the feelings of certain characters. For example when Ralph is desperately frightened, thinking about the existence of the beast, the sea becomes mysterious " Then the sleeping (huge monster) breathed out - the waters rose, the weed streamed, and the water boiled over the table rock with a roar." The island is also described as powerful, "Some unknown force." It was a powerful island and it was in contrast with the boy's moods and behaviour throughout the novel. This gives some unknown magical force to the island contrasting with the setting in "Great Expectations." In "Great Expectations the setting is very realistic with the times in which Dickens was writing. Golding tends to use the unrealistic setting to emphasize the wickedness of human nature whereas Dickens tends to base "Great Expectations" on real events or his own experience. I will now discuss Charles Dickens concerns for the moral welfare of his society and how he communicates this through the characters and setting in "Great Expectations". Great Expectations is based around a boy called "Pip". He is the central character. Dickens makes a point of this using repetition of his name in the very first paragraph of the book. "My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip." The novel shows his journey trough life from his point of view, and he writes how he has arrived at the point he is at when writing. Other characters around Pip in the novel act as positive and negative influences on him and their ways of life show Dickens's concerns for the moral welfare of his society. ...read more.

Conclusion

The Industrial Revolution also introduced great poverty; the working conditions in the factories were terrible. Child labour was out of control. London bred crime and disease. The setting also is an important part of communicating Dicken's concerns for is society. In Great Expectations there is a slight contrast between the city and the country. London is the scene of corruption, confusion, and problems, while the country is a place innocence and honesty. This is contrasted with the peace of the countryside. It is also quite scenic and not very polluted. However in the countryside is obscured by the "Hulk lying out a little way from the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah's ark." By saying this I think that Dickens's is trying to say that there is no clear contrast between the countryside and London. For example there are people in the countryside like Pumblechook who is snobbish and selfish. To conclude, I think that both Golding and Dickens's have many concerns for the moral welfare of their societies, which are discussed above. They communicate these messages through the actions of the characters and setting in their novels. I believe they have succeeded in their attempt to communicate their concerns for society. Dickens view of childhood is almost opposite to Golding's. The young people in Dickens' novel at first maybe non-sensitive and immoral but as the novel progresses these people learn from their mistakes or get punished for their mistakes. However, Golding's novel or the wickedness in humanity is an extreme where he portrays the wickedness through the killing of certain boys. I think that Golding did this to create the sense of shock that small boys could do such a thing. This lies in contrast with the more realistic scenario of Dickens. There is a similarity between the two novels, which is that the authors both use young boys to display their concerns for the welfare of their society. However Golding seems to take it to the extreme and Dickens tends to make it realistic and a projection of his own character. ?? ?? ?? ?? Page 1 of 8 ...read more.

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